Ashes of Hama

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

Raphael Lefevre

An insight into Syria's most influential Islamist movement and how its rebirth from the ashes of history is shaping the conflict in Syria

Draws on previously untapped sources, including interviews with members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood itself

Syria continues to be in the news, and this is the book to help understand what will happen if the Muslim Brotherhood leads a post-Assad state.

Hama was the site of an anto-Assad uprising in 1981, where approx 500,000 were slaughtered. It was meant to be the death of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition.

Ashes of Hama

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

Raphael Lefevre

Description

When the convulsions of the Arab Spring first became manifest in Syria in March 2011, the Ba'athist regime was quick to blame the protests on the "Syrian Muslim Brotherhood" and its "al-Qaeda affiliates." But who are these Islamists so determined to rule a post-Assad Syria?

Little has been published on militant Islam in Syria since Hafez Assad's regime destroyed the Islamist movement in its stronghold of Hama in February 1982. This book bridges that gap by providing readers with the first comprehensive account of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood's history to date.

In this ground-breaking account of Syria's most prominent, yet highly secretive, Islamist organisation, the author draws on previously untapped sources: the memoirs of former Syrian jihadists; British and American archives; and also a series of wide-ranging interviews with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood's historical leaders as well as those who battled against them--many speaking on the record for the first time. Ashes of Hama uncovers the major aspects of the Islamist struggle: from the Brotherhood's radicalisation and its "jihad" against the Ba'athist regime and subsequent exile, to a spectacular comeback at the forefront of the Syrian revolution in 2011--a remarkable turnaround for an Islamist movement which all analysts had pronounced dead amid the ruins of Hama in 1982.

Ashes of Hama

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

Raphael Lefevre

Table of Contents

PART ITHE EMERGENCE OF A POLITICIZED ISLAM IN SYRIA(1860DS1963)1. The Emergence of a Politicized Islam in Syria (1860DS1944) The Politicizing Islam: the rise of the 2. Islam and Democracy: The Muslim Brotherhood in PostindependenceSyria (1946DS1963) The Egyptian roots The Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood Competing for power in Syria>'s parliamentary democracy Defending Islam with pragmatism Losing ground to the Ba>'ath Party

PART IITHE ISLAMIC OPPOSITION TO BA>'ATHISM(1963DS1982)3. The Islamic Reaction to the Ba>'athist Revolution A clash of ideology A clash of constituencies The ideological failure of Ba>'athism Urban uprisings 4. Sunnis and Alawites: a history of mistrust The The Atmosphere of sectarian civil war

PART IIITHE RISE OF JIHADISM IN LATE 1970s SYRIA(1963DS1982)5. The Radicalization of the Islamic Movement (1963DS1980) The moderation of the Damascus Ikhwan The split in the The radicalization of the Islamic movement Birth of an extremist organization: the Fighting Vanguard 6. Endorsing Jihad Against The Ba>'ath (1980DS1982) State repression The Muslim Brotherhood>'s jihad A last stand: the Hama uprising A PART IVASHES OF HAMA: THE SYRIAN ISLAMISTMOVEMENT SINCE 19827. The Fate of Militant Islam After the Hama Revolt Al Qaeda: the Syrian connection The Syrian mukhabarat and radical Islam: a blowback? Taming political Islam 8. Struggling for Relevance: The Muslim Brotherhood>'s Exile Divided between the " Back to basics: the ideological evolution Engaging with the Syrian opposition 9. Uprisings in Syria: A Revenge on History Fostering Islamic radicalization The Brotherhood>'s rebirth from ashes Back to Syria: opportunities and challenges

Ashes of Hama

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

Raphael Lefevre

Author Information

Raphaël Lefèvre is a Gates Scholar and PhD student at King>'s College, Cambridge University, where he also earned an MPhil in International Relations. He has published extensively on the Syrian Islamic movement and is the co-author of State and Islam in Baathist Syria: Confrontation or Co-optation?

Ashes of Hama

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

Raphael Lefevre

Reviews and Awards

"Lefevre has produced a richly detailed, well-written, and sober analytical account of the history of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood. He does an outstanding job of bringing together a wide range of English, French, and Arabic sources to convincingly place the Syrian Brotherhood within its local political context. Ashes of Hama is without question the best available comprehensive English-language work on Syrian Islamist politics." --Foreign Policy, "Best of 2013"

"No book could be more timely than Lefèvre's on the Muslim Brotherhood. Anyone wishing to understand Syria must understand the long and bitter history of the Muslim Brotherhood's struggle with the Assad regime. Islamic groups are poised to take power in Syria and the Brotherhood is foremost among them. Westerners and Syrians alike who fail to appreciate the importance and centrality of the Brotherhood to Syria's modern history are foolish." --Joshua M. Landis, Director, Center for Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma, and author Syria Comment

"To understand the blood-letting in Syria there is no better guide than Raphaël Lefèvre s brilliant, wonderfully-sourced and timely book. He demonstrates that the current vicious civil war is but the latest phase of a fifty-year struggle between the Muslim Brothers and the secular Ba th Party, which seized power in Damascus in 1963, overturning Syria s centuries-old socioeconomic and political order." --Patrick Seale, author of The Struggle for Syria and Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East

"A fascinating study that unravels the complexity of dynamics between radical and more moderate currents within the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, and its most radical offshoots that were primarily responsible for prematurely provoking the Ba'th regime into the tragic bloodbath of Hama in 1982. Lefèvre explains how today's Syrian Revolution provided the Brotherhood with a golden opportunity to make a historical comeback to the forefront of Syrian politics, after decennia of relentless repression by the Syrian Ba'th regime." --Nikolaos van Dam, author of The Struggle for Power in Syria: Politics and Society Under Asad and the Ba'th Party, and former Ambassador of the Netherlands to Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Germany and Indonesia

"A timely and essential history ... [Ashes of Hama]'s great strength is the way in which it sets the Syrian story of the Brotherhood in the context of the place, firmly rooted in the country's tumultuous, often violent post-colonial history." -- Frederick Deknatel, The National

"Raphaël Lefèvre's book sheds valuable light on the Islamist movements that seem poised to take power in a post-Ba'th Syria. It draws on new primary sources, such as interviews with and memoirs of Brotherhood leaders and Western government archives. The definitive study of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, it also throws new light on its jihadi offshoots." -- Middle East Journal

"An impressive and unprecedented compendium of research." -- New York Journal of Books

"In a compact and compelling account, [Ashes of Hama] describes in detail the build-up to an Islamist uprising in the city of Hama in February 1982. ... [A]n important addition to Syria scholarship because the author debunks more thoroughly than others have done the myth perpetuated by the regime and accepted as received wisdom by the world ever since that the Muslim Brotherhood was responsible for the anti-government violence in the 1970s." --Times Literary Supplement

"A wonderful book... Highly recommended." --CHOICE

"The work of Lefevre allows for a re-evaluation of the influence attributed to the Brotherhood in the [Syrian] revolution, and questions the role of the organisation in a post-Assad Syria." -- Jean-Loup Samaan, Politique étrangère